Oreola Williams Haskell (14 April 1875 – 6 September 1953) was an American activist for suffrage, author, and poet in the early twentieth century.
Oreola Williams Haskell (14 April 1875 – 6 September 1953) was an American activist for suffrage, author, and poet in the early twentieth century.
Haskell was born to Theodore and Martha Williams in Poultney, Vermont, on April 14, 1875, and died in Brooklyn on September 6, 1953. The Williams family moved to Brooklyn when Haskell was around five years old, shortly before her brother was born.
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Martha was herself a prominent pioneer suffragist who was very involved in her local suffrage community and society. She led, chaired, and participated in many suffrage organizations in New York City, as listed below:
There is also evidence that Martha worked with Oreola, and one example is Susan B. Anthony's Brooklyn birthday party press release. While Oreola represented the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Political Equality League and had the role of youth outreach, Martha was responsible for press relations. Due to the overlap in Martha and Oreola's leadership experience, it is likely that working alongside her mother gave her the experience and network to follow in her footsteps, at least to some degree.
Theodore was a journalist, editor and poet, and president of the Evolution Club of which Martha, Oreola, and Robert were all active members.
He wrote poetry under the pseudonym Tudor Williams, and edited for the Associated Press and Leslie's Weekly. Based on Oreola's publication records, it maybe possible that it was through her father's connections that she was published in Leslie's Weekly, rather than purely based on merit.
Harold Williams, brother (1879–)
Not much is known about Harold.
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Robert was born in Brooklyn on October 31, 1874, and met Oreola while they were both editing the Era at Cornell. After graduating university, he attended New York Law School while working as a journalist, and graduated in 1898. According to the Cornell Alumni News, he was a "war correspondent for the New York Herald." He became an attorney, and married Oreola on April 8, 1901, at the Unity Church in Brooklyn. He was the leader of the Farmer-Labor Party of Brooklyn. He died at age 90 in his home in St. Petersburg, Florida, on March 20, 1965, after retiring from practice in 1962.
Grace was born on November 22, 1907, in New York. She married Hilmer N. Torner on Feb 23, 1954, in Elkton, Cecil, Maryland. She died on March 2, 1999, in Saint Petersburg, Pinellas, Florida, at age 91.
She helped her mother with some of her society work (specifically the Brooklyn Sittig Christmas Tree Society, which you can learn more about here), alongside Katheryn Beyea, but it is unclear whether she participated in her mother's suffrage activism. In her obituary, she is listed as a homemaker.
Haskell graduated the Girl's High School in Brooklyn NY and was named the Class Poet. At age 17, she founded and presided over the Oreola Progressive Society. She continued her education at Cornell and received a bachelor's degree in Philosophy. While at Cornell, Haskell was on the editorial boards for two student publications, the Era and the Magazine, and won a prize from the former. She was a member and Winter Term President of the Sennightly sorority and was named Class Poet by her peers
Until her later marriage with Robert H. Haskell, Haskell worked as a public school teacher in Brooklyn. Together they had a daughter, Grace Vivian Haskell. Haskell was a prolific author, writing her own novel (see Banner Bearers below) and contributing to magazines such as Judge regularly. Haskell was devoted to the suffrage cause, and worked alongside famous suffragists such as Carrie Chapman Catt and Mary Garrett Hay. Ida Husted Harper, who wrote the introduction to Banner Bearers, commended her for her modesty and lack of interest in the limelight, which was very much in line with the self-sacrificing attitude that Haskell attributed to suffragists in her works. Her quiet, efficient, hardworking attitude was also noted in an interview she had with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1915, as a prime example of the faceless army of diligent suffragists who worked behind the scenes. Alongside her suffrage activism and high society work (predominantly philanthropy), she was an auditor and recording secretary of the New York Federation for Women's Clubs, and as of 1914 she was the patroness of the Brooklyn Sittig Christmas Tree Society. Though her contributions to the suffrage movement in New York have not garnered much attention from historians, her plethora of appearances in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper suggest that she was a well-known and respected figure of the time.
Haskell was a Unitarian, and her hobbies were theater, outdoor sports, and walking.
Among other publications, Haskell contributed poems relating to aspects of city life to the Judge, Leslie's Weekly, McCall's, The Club Woman magazine, and the Housekeeper.
The "Aunt Betsey" stories were written for Haskell's column in Judge, in a country vernacular. In every piece, she encounters an anti-suffragist, and converts them to her cause over the course of the vignette.
According to Woman’s Who’s Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada 1914-1915, Haskell was the author of not two, but three suffrage plays. Additionally, one of her plays was apparently translated into Norwegian and played in Norway, but like its previous claim, this was not explained in further detail.
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